Norwich and Nelson

Spent the last few days in Norwich with James and Sioux (and John, of course). Lovely to see them after so long. Sioux started telling my about her day at school - apparently there was an incident when a group of 14-year-olds started beating up an old lady in front of the school gates. A passing motorist tried to intervene, and when the teachers and police finally arrived, the motorist was lying on the ground being kicked in the head and ribs.

Ahh, kids. They're so sweet.

The school decided that since the incident happened in front of the gates, it wasn't technically on their property, so they could safely wash their hands of any responsibility. The police likewise declined to act against the kids in any way, on the grounds that they were too young.

Anyway, J&S&J were all very well, and Norwich proved itself to bea lovely town, although James assures me that it really comes into its own in summer. A bit cold, and it snowed most of the time I was there.

The main cathedral - for there is also an RC one, built more recently - is a spectacular Norman edifice in the middle of town, and has been very well maintained over the past thousand-odd years of its existence. (Another anecdote from Sioux - when she suggested the idea of going to see the cathedral to her class, some students asked where it was. This despite the presence of a hundred-metre-tall spire sticking out of its roof. She told them that it was just across the street from the law courts, to which one child replied: "Oh! I know where that is. I go there all the time to see my Dad!" "Is he a lawyer?" asked Sioux. "No...")

I walked into town on Friday to see the building in more detail, and found that a guided tour had just started. So I went and caught up with them a few minutes in, and got a fascinating in-depth look at the place.

Like any building of that significance and age, it has a quirky and rich history. There are a number of highly irregular stone carvings in the walls, and a few oddly pagan decorations around the old cloister (for it was once attached to a monastery), and at this far remove it's difficult to say where all of them came from. Two-headed gods, monsters with human heads in their mouths, inanely smiling visages… mostly a mystery now. One such figure was at least identifiable – the “Green Man of Norwich”, depicted as a man’s face peering from behind a mask of leaves. Apparently this character has been traced to pre-Christian pagan legends, and is something like a cross between Puck and a Greek satyr.

It was also interesting to see the number of points where decorations had been destroyed - wilfully, not as a result of the passage of time - during the Puritan period of England's history. Saints beheaded, rich paintings obliterated with whitewash and occasionally things merely hidden from view: such as the wooden panel which serves as an altarpiece in one of the side chapels. The painting is extravagantly highlighted in gold and beautifully executed, but it was found when someone was sitting at a table having a meeting in one of the church offices. They dropped their pen under the table, bent down to collect it, and happened to look up... and were understandably staggered to see exactly what they had been resting their coffee cups on. Apparently the Puritans wanted it out of sight, but were too busy to destroy it completely (or possibly they were just short of tables).

Another intriguing bit of historical oddity was to be found at the very Eastern end of the cathedral, in a passageway which curves from the side walls past the sanctuary and behind the main altar and the bishop's throne. At the very furthest reach, there is a small recess in the wall, designed as a reliquary for the holy relics of a dead saint.

So far, nothing unusual. However, a flue rose up from the reliquary, and fed directly into a hole in the seat of the bishop's throne. The theory was, the "holy ethers" would rise up through this pipe and the bishop would be "inspired from below", as it were.

Speaking of Puritans, as we were driving through the town on Saturday, James pointed out a row of buildings which sit on top of the biggest pile of bones in Norwich. It is the site of the old burning ground – the place where heretics were burned to death after being excommunicated from the church. Really brought in the crowds.

In later centuries, the crowds would come for special “hanging holidays” – bring the whole family up for a week in Norwich to watch the public executions! The castle in Norwich was used as a gaol for many years, and those condemned of sufficiently heinous crimes would be executed in a grand spectacle which was advertised well in advance. The rich would get hotel rooms overlooking the execution place, while the less well-off would have to jostle for a good view in a throng of eager onlookers below.

On Saturday, James and I took a walk along the famous Norfolk Broads – no, not a derogatory term for the local girls, but rather a description of the wide river estuaries for which the region is noted. Very picturesque, but I’d imagine they’re better in summer when it’s not quite so cold and muddy.

Another of the big things in Norwich is Nelson – he was very much their favourite son – so it was fitting that on this, my first day back from that city, I went to visit him in Trafalgar Square. My destination was an extraordinary exhibition at the National Gallery entitled “Caravaggio: The Final Years”, which featured his major paintings from the time he fled Rome (to escape a death sentence for murder) until his death. Apart from the gorgeous paintings, it gave a unique look into his tortured genius, and gave the visitor an excellent understanding of the violent demons with which he contended all his life.

The rest of the gallery was as stunning as always: Turner, Rembrandt, Canaletto, da Vinci et al. were as strong and stirring as ever.

After the gallery, took a long walk down the Thames Embankment. As I passed Downing Street, there was a crowd of people gathered to watch two middle-aged men in super-hero costumes hanging onto a window ledge on the second storey of the Foreign Office building. I walked on, past Parliament, over Westminster Bridge, down the south bank of the Thames, and eventually wandered up past Buckingham Palace and St James Park. Bitterly cold, snowing and beautiful.

(the arrival) 

...and back to this! 

...to this...

...and this...

From this...

Out on the Town(s)

A late start, but a productive day nonetheless.

Got up at about 11 today - too late to get much value from the museums in London. Fortunately, when I finally got in touch with Hugh he said that next week was going to work far better for him, anyway, so I'll be better off going in tomorrow instead. Also had to finish off some ERP work rather urgently, so it all worked out well.

There was intermittent sunshine all day, so I decided to try and get some good shots of the cathedral in St Albans today. Splendid light for it, and the building was magnificent as always. Fascinating to learn some more about its history, too - particularly that it has been an active site of Christian worship for about 1700 years. St Alban, as it turns out, was the first English martyr, executed by the Romans in c.250AD for his faith (and, in particular, for sheltering a priest in his house). The site of his shrine later became the site of a church, and when the monastery was built under the Norman occupation, they took stone from the old Roman buildings for the construction of the abbey (1077-1115AD). Didn't technically become a cathedral until 1877, which date also marked the completion of about 20 years of serious restoration work. The present architecture is a fascinating mix of Norman, Decorated, Gothic and Victorian styles. But you can check it all out for yourself at their website...

Got some lovely shots, inside and out, and then as I was just leaving the cathedral, the weather made a dramatic turn for the worse. It was calm and sunny, even reasonably warm, when the first little flakes of snow started drifting down. Within two minutes there was a fierce gale blowing, hailstones and snow flurries dropped the visibility to a humdred metres. I holed up in a pastry shop until it blew over. Mmm, cheese and bacon pies...

Once things had settled down a bit, I went back down the hill and over the river to the Roman Museum. Very interesting little display of Roman artifacts excavated from the area, including some remarkable mosaics, and a history of the town from its Celtic origins through to the Roman occupation. Verulamium, as it was then called (as St. Alban hadn't even been born yet), was the third largest city in Roman Britain (after London and Colchester). It shared the honour with those two cities of being burned to the ground by Queen Boudicca of the Iceni during her revolt of 61AD.

All this history was really awesome, and stood in sharp contrast to the town I visited over the weekend. On Friday evening I popped up to Milton Keynes to visit Kevin, and it was very much the opposite of St Albans on the historical heritage scale. Far from having grown up from two thousand years of Celtic, Roman and Norman habitation, it was instead spawned, full-formed, at the end of the First World War. The brainchild of two economists (Messrs. Milton and Keynes, naturally), it was an experiment at a planned community consisting of an organised grid of self-contained villages with a high-speed road network between them. Although I can recognise the efficiency of such a system, it has about as much charm as you'd expect from a city planned by economists. Very utilitarian and lacking in soul.

It was good to see Kevin, though, and we went out for a movie ("Sideways" - definitely not for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed it) and dinner at Nando's. Chose that restaurant mostly for the sake of irony, but in fact the chicken was superb. Ordered the "Hot", and it had a very pleasant tingle to it...

Then on Saturday evening I went in to Leicester Square to meet Miles and some of his friends for dinner. Awesome to see him again, and a really nice group at the restaurant.

Speaking of dinner, the bobotjie is almost ready...

UK, ho...

And so it was that on a blustery February morning I found myself catching a train from St. Albans to London's St. Pancras Station, on my way to meet Patrick for lunch.

The flight over here was typical American Airlines -blandly depressing, but with nothing specific to grumble at. (To be fair, the staff were doing their best with the limited resources at their disposal, and were in fact very pleasant). And I had three seats to myself, so I managed to get a few hours of decent sleep.

Then through UK immigration with only the most cursory of cavity searches, and Patrick met me at the gate to take me up to St. Albans by train. Called the folks from the airport - they were obviously very happy to hear from us so quickly.

Monday I headed back in to London and had Chinese for lunch with Patrick, and then wandered south from his Bond Street offices past Hyde Park and Mayfair. It truly is a breath-taking city for walking, with wonders both historical and modern to be discovered around every corner.

(Speaking of wonders, I passed a showroom selling the new Mini, so I stopped in to try it out for size. Like its predecessor, it's remarkably roomy inside, and could comfortably accomodate four of me. Not so the Porsches in the next-door shop, all of which were horribly cramped for a person of my dimensions).

Bought a mapbook from a stall in Piccadilly Circus, and continued on down to Trafalgar Square, St. James' Park, Chinatown and Soho. And then, just as I was starting to feel a bit footsore and thinking of heading home, I saw a sign with directions to the British Museum. And I thought, "Well, I'm not going to do all of that place in one day, so I might as well pop in and look at a few rooms now..."

Haven't been to the BM for five years, and it turns out that things have changed rather dramatically in that time. The front facade is still the same, and the entrance hall is unchanged, but when you pass through to the courtyard, you are now greeted by a jaw-dropping space of glass-roofed magnificence. The new vaulted cover between the wings is gorgeous and uplifting. And just as you're recovering from that, you walk through the first door on your left and "BAM!" - it's the Rosetta Stone, staring you right in the face. The single most important archaeological discovery in all of Egypt, the very symbol of the desire to understand past cultures, and it's sitting two feet in front of you.

It's quite a place.

Wandered in a daze through ancient Mesopotamia, and eventually headed up to what I had chosen as the day's objective - a special exhibition of Japanese swords. It was a beautiful showcase of the subject and largely new to me, and I enjoyed it immensely. The museum was closing by the time I got through with that display, so I left before I started to feel over-loaded by history.

Today was rather lighter - it was cold and my feet were sore, so I gave myself a haircut and settled in to watch "Anchorman" on DVD. There's a market in St. Albans tomorrow, so I think I'll stay in this neighbourhood and explore the town a bit more.

But for now, bed is calling...

The Bo...

Bringing Asia Home

It's been a very Asian couple of days - not something I would have thought possible in Texas, but I guess it just shows what you can do with a bit of imagination.

Last night we got a couple of Asian DVDs from Blockbuster - Joseph has been wanting to watch "The Grudge" ever since it first came out, and I'd been keen to see "Infernal Affairs" (a Hong Kong-based action movie) ever since I saw the posters in HK in 2003.

Now, obviously, if you're watching foreign films, you must have foreign beer to accompany it, ne? So we picked up a six of Kirin Ichiban for "The Grudge" and some Tsingtao for the HK flick. (Although "The Grudge" was made in the USA and stars American leads, it is an exact adaptation of a legendary Japanese horror - complete with the same director and setting - so it still qualifies as a foreign film. Just in case you need a justification for buying foreign beer in America. Which we don't. I mean, last Sunday was the Superbowl, and - committing heresy by local standards - we decided that the only suitable accompaniment to chili and nachos was Central American beer. We settled on San Lucas from El Salvador, and I recommend it highly.)

The first beers and the first movie were both better. "The Grudge" is truly horrific and disturbing, but it is very well-made. "Infernal Affairs", however, was a bit disappointing. Great concept, and good performances by the leads, but the storyline was a bit messy and the denoument unsatisfying. I can only assume that it got high acclaim from western reviewers due to their lack of exposure to that style of film, but it really wasn't anything special. Also, Tsingtao is significantly more skunky than Kirin.

Tonight was an experimental culinary adventure. I've spent the past six months driving past a restaurant in McKinney called "China Sun Sushi & Hibachi Grill". Ever suspicious of the competency of Texans to produce any good food other than steaks, I had avoided it until tonight, but in fact it was superb. It was laid out as a sushi grill, with tables consisting of a large flat-top and eight guest seats around each. The chefs were entertaining and dramatic, and the food they produced was magnificent. Of course, there were actually no Japanese people in the restaurant. The owner and most of the staff were Korean, and our chef was Filipino. Joseph and I confused the other guests at our table by making jokes with the chef in a mixture of English, Korean and Tagalog.

And would you believe it? They had 16-oz bottles of Sapporo for four bucks.

Moving Day

Spent the afternoon moving the office furniture out with James and Joseph so that we can vacate it at the end of the month.

U-Haul is a complete rip-off, though. They charge an insane rate per mile on top of the rental fee, and try to sneak in any possible extra charge they can. There was a dolly bolted to the side of the van, but it had a little plastic tag which you had to break to use it. After we unbolted it we saw a sign in another section of the van, which said that it would cost $7 if we broke the tag. Frankly, I found that level of nickel-and-dime behaviour offensive, so before we returned the van I stuck the tag back on with sellotape. It was good enough for a cursory inspection.

Went to a Texas Roadhouse for dinner. The menu said, "If it doesn't say Texas, it isn't Texas Roadhouse!". There are so many things I could say, but I'm just going to let it slide.

There was a big bucket of peanuts on the table. After dinner I built a minature Stonehenge made from peanut shells, stuck to the plate with butter. The staff were amused. I was pleasantly shocked to find that so many of them actually knew what Stonehenge is.

Perhaps there is hope, after all...

Carlin on Quayle

After two trips and about six total hours of walking to, from and around the various shops of McKinney, I've finally managed to get the mouse I wanted. It seems a silly quest, I know, but I've really enjoyed using a laptop mouse, so I had to get one before I left.

Walking around the stores here is so trippy, though. I feel like Haley Joel Osment in a Reubens exhibition - I see fat people! They're everywhere!

As I was wandered I saw winter clothes on special, so I took a look. As is my custom, I picked out a couple of XL sweaters to try on, and was astonished to find that they were like tents on me. A "medium" ultimately proved to be my size. Medium! I haven't been medium since I was about 12! I feel so petite!

The tracksuit pants were impossible, though. The sizes which were long enough were sufficiently capacious to fit my whole body down each leg. You'd think it would be possible to find athletic gear in a reasonably athletic cut, but apparently not...

Speaking of mediums, I saw a sign on the way to the store reading "Psychic Institute". The building itself was a small, nondescript block of prefabricated imitation-brick walls. Perhaps it's just me, but "Institute" seemed a rather grandiose title for such an unassuming place. There was also no indication from the sign whether it was offering a commercial service, advertising an academy for would-be phoneys, or simply a facility for housing unfortunate members of a specific subdivision of the lunatic fringe.

Came home and watched The Daily Show's coverage of W's State of the Union address, highlighting the appointment of Laura "Please-don't-look-at-me-because-you-scare-me" Bush to a body responsible for curbing gang-related teen violence. After which came an old George Carlin show with him ranting on Quayle.

Ahh, that's better.